How we work in emergencies

Jamila, 67, already had mobility problems before the July 2010 floods in Pakistan. HelpAge provided her with new crutches. Photo: HelpAge International HelpAge International is the only international organisation that works specifically to ensure that older people receive the assistance they need and deserve in humanitarian crises and disasters.

We do this by providing assistance to older people and by working with other humanitarian aid providers to help ensure their assistance meets the needs of older people.

Working through our network

We lead an international network of over 90 affiliate organisations and around 200 partner organisations in over 60 countries.

Much of the assistance we provide in humanitarian crises is provided through our partners and affiliates, supported by our regional centres in Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Our emergency response activities include:

• Relief distributions: We provide older people with essential relief items in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, such as hygiene kits, shelter materials and supplementary food.
  
• Healthcare: We help to ensure older people have appropriate healthcare by providing specialist staff in existing health facilities, training health staff, running mobile clinics and distributing medication and equipment, such as mobility aids and eyeglasses.
• Nutrition: We help to ensure older people have the right kind of nutritional assistance to suit their needs and that general food distributions are accessible for older people. Where necessary, we conduct nutritional assessments and distribute food to older people.
• Livelihood support: We help older people to have an income on which they can survive by supporting work opportunities, as well as access to micro-credit and cash transfers.
• Protection: We help ensure older people's lives, security and dignity are protected by identifying the most vulnerable, facilitating their access to essential assistance and care and advocating their rights.
• Disaster risk reduction: Where possible, we incorporate disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures to reinforce crisis-affected communities' resilience to future disasters and to protect and strengthen their existing capacities to meet their own needs.
• Technical support: We produce technical guidance and training materials to ensure appropriate, quality humanitarian assistance for older people.
• Capacity building: We help our partners and other humanitarian agencies develop their capacity to support older people in emergencies.
• Advocacy: We bring the rights and needs of older people to the attention of the international humanitarian system, governments, donors and the public and advocate appropriate humanitarian response for them.

HelpAge's emergency programmes are funded by:

• Private donations from individuals, trusts and foundations in the UK raised by our UK partner, Age UK, including public appeals run by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)
• Various global trusts, foundations and NGOs including CordAid and Refugees International Japan
• Private donations from individuals, trusts and foundations in other countries raised by HelpAge affiliates in the USA, Germany and the Netherlands
• Multilateral donors, such as the Humanitarian Aid department of the European Commission (ECHO) and the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT)
• Donor governments including the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), Spanish Government (AECID), German Government (GIZ), Isle of Man Overseas Aid Committee, Irish Government - Irish Aid and Norwegian Government (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
• DFID funds provided to the The Start Network (formerly Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies - CBHA), of which HelpAge is a member.
• UN agency funding including UNHCR, UNICEF, UN Common Humanitarian Fund (Sudan), UNOCHA Humanitarian Response Fund (Ethiopia) and UNDP Pooled Funds (DRC).